Congress passes National ID card legislation.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

Honestly, Cowdisease, I really doubt that the final implementation of this will be the same as it was in that bill (if at all). Im sure state lawyers are already prepping to sue the federal govt on various grounds.

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I'm aware that the states are going to fight it. I hope that they do a good job of changing most if not all of the provisions.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

I think those criticisms are legitimate but I think the idea of one ID is a good one.

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It sounds good on principle because you don't have to worry about multiple ID cards, but there's too many security risks for me to accept the idea. Specifically this one (source):

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But the main problem with any ID system is that it requires the existence of a database. In this case it would have to be an immense database of private and sensitive information on every American -- one widely and instantaneously accessible from airline check-in stations, police cars, schools, and so on.

The security risks are enormous. Such a database would be a kludge of existing databases; databases that are incompatible, full of erroneous data, and unreliable. As computer scientists, we do not know how to keep a database of this magnitude secure, whether from outside hackers or the thousands of insiders authorized to access it.

And when the inevitable worms, viruses, or random failures happen and the database goes down, what then? Is America supposed to shut down until it's restored?

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"But the main problem with any ID system is that it requires the existence of a database. "

Then why do anything? I see his point, but I don't think the solution is "do nothing". The EU is doing similar things, but I didn't see all this criticism being leveled at them on all the poilitically-motivated "blogs" (god, I hate that word). Instead, it's all "Oh, US is being Big Brother again", and it just desensitizes me from that junk.

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Originally Posted by Kano on the Phone

My mom pays around $300 even to register her 2004 New Yorker. Yes, yearly.

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I didn't even have to pay half of that to get my car both registered and transfered. That sucks.

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Originally Posted by Joust Williams

"But the main problem with any ID system is that it requires the existence of a database. "

Then why do anything? I see his point, but I don't think the solution is "do nothing". The EU is doing similar things, but I didn't see all this criticism being leveled at them on all the poilitically-motivated "blogs" (god, I hate that word). Instead, it's all "Oh, US is being Big Brother again", and it just desensitizes me from that junk.

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Bruce's point wasn't that an ID system uses a database, but that a national ID system would create a very big and convoluted database that would be difficult to maintain and protect. You've seen all the news reports about databases with personal information being hacked into and stolen. If such a thing were to happen to a national ID database, we could see an identity theft crisis of biblical scale.

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Originally Posted by g0zen

It's a federal offense for your Social Security number to be used for identification.

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Tell that to the loads of business and other things that do use it for identification.

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Originally Posted by Cowdisease

we're talking about an identity theft crisis of biblical scale.

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Wait, there was identity theft in the bible? What happened, did someone steal Jesus's identity and use it to buy a bunch of donkeys?

"If such a thing were to happen to a national ID database, we could see an identity theft crisis of biblical scale."

Well, we already do have really big databases though. And secondly, they aren't (and won't be) monitored by Joe Blow. That's like saying "don't build super planes because once they blow up, that's bad".

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Originally Posted by bbobb

Wait, there was identity theft in the bible? What happen, did someone steal Jesus's identity and use it to buy a bunch of donkeys?

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You know what I meant. :p

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Originally Posted by bbobb

Wait, there was identity theft in the bible? What happen, did someone steal Jesus's identity and use it to buy a bunch of donkeys?

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Sigged

Just do the eyeball thing like in Minority Report.